A few more journaling pages and I'm off to Mexico!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember that in July I went to Mexico for some dental implants. Since they have now healed and grown into the bones, it is time for my return visit to get the permanent teeth! While I am there I will also have some crowns done. So, we leave tomorrow for a week in Mexico - am sure my husband will enjoy it but it won't be as relaxing for me!

It will be quiet here on the blog all week so I'm leaving you with some art journaling pages - all works in progress and more layers to go!

This one is gesso applied through a floral stencil which acts as a resist for the Distress Paints I added after it was dry. 

This one has several colors of Dylusions ink sprays on the background. When those were dry, I covered the entire page with black gesso. Before the gesso dried completely, I covered it with a circle stencil and removed the gesso in the holes.  This makes me think of the solar system, but I really don't have a clue where to go with the page from here!

Gesso was applied to this page rather thickly with a palette knife. When it was dry, I used blue and yellow ink sprays and let them run and drip. I like how these colors mixed and the texture is fantastic.

This page is extra products from another project I was working on and I tried out some things here. Modeling paste was used through the honeycomb stencil. I then sprayed it with Dylusions Melted Chocolate spray ink. I have to say that with a name like that I want to love it, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of this color. It reacts funny. You can see that when I blended it with a baby wipe it turned pinkish. Then I tried heating it with a heat tool and it turned blackish green! It actually looks a lot better now that it is completely dry, but I don't like that you never know how it will react! There are also flecks of gold and black paint. The trick to those are diluting the paint, using a small paintbrush and covering the surrounding area! 

This page is a hodge podge of lots of things and I'm not even sure I can remember all I've done to it! It started out as decoupaged paper scraps and then there are several layers of scraped paint and spray mists. I used a clock stencil with modeling paste which became dyed with a subsequent ink spray. There are also painted circles (with a toilet paper tube) and white paint lines (from corrugated cardboard) and white paint stamped on with bubble wrap.

This last one is what I call a "mop up page." When I have paint or mediums left over I don't want to waste them so I brush them onto another journal page. It eliminates the "blank page" syndrome when I start to work on that page and saves my drains from excess paint! I love these colors together.

As I said, none of these is finished yet. I rarely finish a page in one sitting. It's an ongoing process!

Ciao...I'll see you in a week!

More Art Journaling Pages

Here are two more art journaling pages I've made in the past few weeks.

The first one I challenged myself to only use Distress inks, as that was what I was teaching in the art journaling class this month.  Everything on the page is Distress ink except the tiny stenciled dots (modeling paste), star and text outlines (journaling pen) and a touch of Stickles on the large stars. The background started with some Distress stains and lots of water, then I applied the ink directly to the page with a blending tool and also through some stencils (small stars and numbers). I stamped with a few different colors of Distress ink (script and lines).  When the modeling paste was applied, some of the inks (which are not waterproof) bled into the design, which added more nice color. I cut the large stars out of book text, inked them and then glued to the page. The black lines are made with a credit card and diluted black Distress ink on my craft sheet and the small black flecks are flicked with a paintbrush dipped in the same diluted ink. 

This page was inspired by a similar one on Pinterest. I happened to have several small kraft colored tags leftover from another project, still on my workspace, so I glued these to a small journal page and then gessoed over the entire surface.  Once that was dry I used Picked Raspberry Distress Paint and ran a thick, juicy line across the bottom of the page. I spritzed with water and used a paintbrush to wash the paint over the entire page, using more water and less paint as I progressed to the top of the page. This gives a nice ombre effect.  I punched a few butterflies from card stock and painted them with the respective shades of pink.  The embossed metal foil heart was also a leftover and I thought using it as the focal point grounded the page. This is very simple but I love the effect!

Fabric Tag for a Swap

I've joined another online swap, this time for a fabric tag. Maybe because it's been cold and yucky lately, my thoughts have turned to spring, so I featured a sweet bird image as the focal point of the tag.  It is an image transfer onto muslin which I then layered and sewed to natural burlap, blue and white ticking, some vintage laces, and light blue rickrack on two pieces of canvas fabric. A manilla shipping tag is ensconced between the canvas pieces to give it some added stiffness.

The seam binding ribbon was dyed with Tumbled Glass Distress ink and I glued on three old buttons. The nest is some unraveled threads bunched up and glued to the tag.

I had so much fun making this that I made two more - one to keep and one to swap with a local friend.

Evolution of an Art Journal Page

I've had this art journal page in the works for quite awhile now and it still is not finished. Who knows what it will become? (That's the fun of this genre!)

First I started by glueing paper scraps all over the page.

Then I added blue Distress Paint and spritzed it with water to drip down the page.

Next up was a layer of modeling paste through a circle stencil.

When this was dry I added some green Distress stain which randomly colored some of the circles.

And then a bit of yellow stain here and there along with white acrylic paint "stamped" on with bubble wrap (one of my favorite techniques).

This is what is looks like at the moment, awaiting many further layers I'm sure. It's all about building up layers of paints, stamps and colors until the page "speaks" to you and you feel it's finally finished.

I love playing in my art journals!

Miscellaneous Cards

Last week I got together with a few friends and we made cards. These were all pretty simple but it was nice to replenish my card supply. I never seem to have an appropriate card when I need it! (All supplies are Stampin Up.)

"Cold as Ice" ATCs

One of my goals this year is to participate in more swaps and art exchanges. I used to do these often but once I started designing for the store and classes, I rarely had time to participate.

This is the first ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap of the year for an online group I'm in. The theme was "Cold as Ice" - appropriate for the weather most of the country has been having lately!

I decided to join in and created this ATC for my two partners. I saw a tutorial for a small project online using this design and I just had to make it as it seemed perfect for the theme.  The penguin was made with two sizes of ovals and a heart cut from a foam sheet and then stamped with paint. Everything else was hand drawn/painted.

Today I received my ATCs from my two partners.  This first one is from Nancy. Both the snowflake and snow are very sparkly. So cute!

And this one is from Liane. The snowflakes appear to be one large die cut and it, too, is very sparkly.!

The fun of swaps is seeing how different people interpret the theme and to exchange unique art. I love my ATCs!

Catching Up

This is a canvas I created for my daughter and her husband for Christmas.  I had seen a similar one on Pinterest and, when they went to Destin, FL, this summer, I requested a photo of little Carl looking out toward the water.  It took me a long time to get to the project but I was happy with the result.

I crumpled regular white tissue paper and decoupaged it to an 11" x 14" canvas.  Then I used the photo for the placement of the sand, water and sky.  I painted the areas until they looked "right" and added a bit of torn patterned mulberry paper for clouds.  The photo is 5" x 7" and the sentiment was an old rub on that was perfect!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone new year has started out well! I am enjoying a more relaxed pace for the first time in several months - this fall/holiday season was a killer for me!

Our family Christmas in Sonoma Valley, CA, was great fun. No one had any travel hiccups, the weather was brisk but beautiful, we visited some amazing small wineries and just had a wonderful, relaxing time together.

Of course the highlight was spending time with these little guys. I love to buy them matching outfits.

Do you suppose they're waiting for Santa?

Resolution for 2014 - spend lots of time creating art!